Page 87 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

Settling her on his hip, Trevor gave a lengthy pause before answering.

“Because the world is a bad place, and it has bad people in it, and sometimes those people are supposed to be our family. They’re supposed to love us, but they don’t.

They love the badness in them more, and you know what, Madi?

That’s not your fault. You have to keep being good and not think about the bad people anymore. ”

The hospital door creaked open again.

“How are we doing in here?”

Holden sauntered in as if he hadn’t been knocked unconscious by a flying projectile during the explosion. A line of stitches cut across his forehead, and he shot a smirk at Emily.

“Hey there, Speed Racer.”

Emily hadn’t hesitated. Hopping onto Holden’s lap after he took a hit to the head, she’d gotten them the hell out of there.

A small blush tinted Emily’s pale face, but she mirrored Holden’s smirk. “That truck handled pretty well. It was smart of you to steal it.”

Holden wiggled his eyebrows. “Stealing trucks and saving the day is kind of my job.”

Talking on the phone, Will came in behind Holden, looking as tired as they all felt.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll tell them. Yes, Evie. I will properly yell at everyone involved, but please calm down. Okay, okay, okay. Bye.”

Putting his phone in his pocket, Will took a cleansing breath. “We are all in trouble from now until the end of time because we didn’t tell Evie what was happening.”

Albie had just been born, but it felt as if it had been months. Dizzy all of a sudden, Jamison placed a hand on the wall, and after settling Damon on the bed, Liam returned to her.

“I’m ready to go home,” she whispered. “But I want to know what the authorities have learned.”

“Are you sure?”

“I need to know.”

“Me too.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “Tell me you’re okay.”

She closed her eyes and breathed him in.

“I’m okay.”

“Well, that makes one of us.”

Liam peered out the window of the taxi as they pulled into the staging area. Spotlights flooded the scene while dozens of men and women moved around in various groups.

“Looks like Anderson made it.”

They exited the cab and approached a cluster of feds holding Agent Anderson at its center. “Has anyone heard how Carter is doing?” Jamison asked.

“My dad said Carter isn’t leaving Evie's side,” Liam replied over the noise. “Carter tried to send Izzy home to get some rest, but they started arguing since Iz refused to leave her post.”

“Who won?”

“Carter ended up winning when Abe said they should consider the girls and Josie, who all needed to get some sleep in a real bed.” Liam took her hand as they entered a thicker crowd of people.

“But then Samuel and Evie got upset over the idea of being separated from the girls, and now they’re all camped out in Evie’s hospital room having a giant sleepover, from what it sounds like. ”

Smiling felt wrong, but the image in her head left her with no choice. She was ready to be home and meet her new nephew, but first, they had to deal with the aftermath of Michael.

She squeezed his hand. “Dad said he was taking me back, but that you were staying?”

Being the partner of a man who served the public, she was familiar with the job's requirements. And while he worked in the private sector now, his internal need to do what was right would have him stay, even if the entire thing wasn’t a very up close and personal incident for their family.

“I want you secured at Haven until I know for sure.”

“Know what, for sure?”

“That they’re all dead.”

Michael and Taylor had been close to the blast, but those coordinates…

she’d looked them up. Liam showed her how.

They pinpointed a spot on the lake's edge where she imagined the view was spectacular without the fog.

A perfect place to propose. Sinclair pr obably killed Taylor almost immediately, or so Liam thought, and the final shot they heard was him ending his own life before the explosion.

But Liam wasn’t referring to Michael and Taylor. He wanted to know if any Zanmi members had escaped. “Do you think Emmett is alive?”

“Perhaps, but I highly doubt it.”

They made it to Anderson and found not only him, but also Klausen.

“Ms. Fairweather.” Klausen nodded in greeting. “It would appear that I have been correct all these years. You are one extraordinarily tough woman.”

She would take time later to think about why that particular statement had tears springing forth, but for now, they needed to focus on getting the details. “Klausen, don’t start being nice to me, or I’ll start being nice to you, and then where will our relationship go?”

“Good to see you, Ms. Fairweather.” Anderson held up a hand to halt the chatter coming from the group. “Thanks for making my last days at the Bureau interesting.”

“Glad to be of service.”

Will and Holden’s cab pulled up next, and Liam waved them over. Her father was off securing hotel rooms, or he was coordinating the effort to find hotel rooms. In truth, it was probably Hillary helping him, since her father no longer had an assistant.

It turned her stomach, thinking of all the private details Taylor had access to during her time under Samuel and their father. She would have known every little detail of their lives, twisting the information into some warped narrative she could use on the people who followed her and Toby.

Toby.

She’d heard Liam quietly talking to what sounded like Rowan on the phone.

He wanted a message sent without delay to Killian McIntyre.

The first part of it was a stand down order, and that was to be expected.

Liam was always good on his word, and one day, he would see that the hasty decision made by him and her brother came from a need to protect and nothing more.

They were honorable at their core, and no one, no monster or man, would ever change that.

But the second part of his conversation, well, she did take a small amount of pleasure there.

It jarred a sick satisfaction in her that she had no right to feel.

The PR plan was that there would be no plan.

Anyone could ask whatever they wanted. They weren’t going to hide any details.

Not anymore. From here until eternity, the Fairweathers would operate with a come one, come all attitude.

Come look at their highs. Come gasp at their lows.

Come see the freaks that call themselves a family when they’re made up of nothing but thin connections and poorly kept secrets.

Come see the Fairweathers and how they are so very flawed.

Just like everyone else in the world.

So when Liam gave his second request, it was for something simple. Something that sent a message.

Turn on the news.

That was it.

Turn on the news and let Toby see what Michael had done.

Liam and Samuel might be honorable men, but they were vindictive as well. Jamison loved them a little more for it.

Moving around Anderson, Liam examined the map laid out on the hood of an unmarked car. “Has the site been cleared?”

“Bomb investigators are in there,” Anderson replied. “Sinclair kept it neat for the most part.”

Liam pointed to a spot on the map. “Sinclair’s body should be here, and Taylor’s probably not far off.”

“They’ve already located something here.” Anderson’s finger slid down the map, stopping not far from the coordinates Michael had given her. “Might be Taylor. Hard to tell at this point. We’re thinking he used some sort of phosphorus bomb on her, so there’s not much left.”

Holden approached and handed over a holster and Glock to Liam. “Thought you’d want this.”

“Thanks, man.”

Liam buckled in with practiced ease, not missing a beat in the briefing.

Jamison watched him, sighing over the calm focus he held and the way he wore violence and honor like armor.

She was being ridiculous and would need to snap out of it, but for just one second, she allowed herself to be a lovesick idiot fawning over her man.

And when he caught her looking, he winked.

“Behave,” she whispered.

“You’re the one staring.”

Thankfully, the agents and cops were busy talking among themselves. Only Holden was paying attention. “You guys know we almost died, right?” he asked sarcastically. “Like you do you and all that, but can you hold it together until we’re done here?”

“Holden, let me tell you something. When you love someone, show them every chance you can, regardless of the circumstances.” Adjusting the holster to his body, Liam kissed her soundly to prove his point. “And we won’t be done here for a long time.”

The minuscule smile on her face fled. “What do you mean, a long time? I thought I was returning in a couple of hours, and you were coming home tomorrow or the next day.”

A few heads turned their way, but Liam was already checking his gun and returning to his interrogation of Anderson. “Has the team made it to the house yet? That’ll be where most of the casualties are.”

“They have,” Anderson confirmed. “But there’s no way to tell anything at this time since there’s nothing left.”

Will was already in deep conversation with a couple of men who looked like feds, but paused to speak up. “So, we don’t know who was in there, and who might have escaped the blast?”

“The blast field was incredibly wide,” a man next to Anderson started to say.

“Yeah, we know that,” Holden interjected, pointing to the angry gash on his forehead. “But has no one checked the area around the lake? Someone could have reached it in time to take cover.”

“When Sinclair led us downstairs, everyone was asleep. Eugene Gilbert knocked them out using some sort of injection.” Liam swiped a marker out of Klausen’s hand.

“But if anyone came to, and realized something was happening, they could have gained enough distance,” he scribbled a line on the map, “if they ran this way.”

“Do you have reason to believe that anyone could have made it?” Anderson asked, his head tilting out of curiosity.

“Michael let one guy go. Emmett Watson. He was headed in a northeasterly direction, and if he continued that way, he would have made it out.” Liam drew an arrow on the map to show Emmett’s path. “Did you pick up Gilbert yet?”

Anderson nodded. “About an hour ago.”

“That’s a start.” Liam tossed the marker at Klausen, who fumbled the catch. “So, let’s get to work.”